For Marke, his cowardly uncle's right,
A venom'd wound he bore;
When fierce Morholde he slew in fight,
Upon the Irish shore.

No art the poison might withstand;
No medicine could be found,
Till lovely Isolde's lily hand

Had probed the rankling wound.

With gentle hand and soothing tongue
She bore the leech's part;
And, while she o'er his sick-bed hung,
He paid her with his heart.

O fatal was the gift, I ween!
For, doom'd in evil tide,

The maid must be rude Cornwall's queen,
His cowardly uncle's bride.

Their loves, their woes, the gifted bard,
In fairy tissue wove:

Where lords, and knights, and ladies bright,
In gay confusion strove.

The Garde Joyeuse, amid the tale,
High rear'd its glittering head;
And Avalon's enchanted vale
In all its wonders spread.

Brangwain was there, and Segra:nore,
And fiend-born Merlin's gramarye;
Of that famed wizard's mighty lore,
O who could sing but he?

Through many a maze the winning song
In changeful passion led,

Till bent at length the listening throng
O'er Tristrem's dying bed.

His ancient wounds their scars expand,
With agony his heart is wrung:
O where is Isolde's lilye hand,

And where her soothing tongue?

She comes! she comes!-like flash of flame
Can lovers' footsteps fly:

She comes! she comes!-she only came
To see her Tristrem die.

She saw him die; her latest sigh

Join'd in a kiss his parting breath; The gentlest pair, that Britain bare, United are in death.

There paus'd the harp: its lingering sound
The silent guests still bent around,
Died slowly on the car:
For still they seem'd to hear.

Then woe broke forth in murmurs weak:
Nor ladies heaved alone the sigh;
Lut, half ashamed, the rugged cheek
Did many a gauntlet dry.

On Leader's stream, and Learmont's tower,
The mists of evening close;
In camp, in castle, or in bower,

Each warrior sought repose.

Lord Douglas, in his lofty tent,
Dream'd o'er the woful tale;

When footsteps light, across the bent,
The warrior's ears assail.

He starts, he wakes:-"What, Richard, ho!
Arise, my page, arise!

What venturous wight, at dead of night,
Dare step where Douglas lies!"

Then forth they rush'd: by Leader's tide,
A selcouthsight they see-
A hart and hind pace side by side,
As white as snow on Fairnalic. 2

Beneath the moon, with gesture proud,
They stately move and slow;
Nor scare they at the gathering crowd,
Who marvel as they go.

To Learmont's tower a message sped,
As fast as page might run;
And Thomas started from his bed,
And soon his clothes did on.

First he woxe pale, and then woxe red;
Never a word he spake but three :-
"My sand is run; my thread is spun;
This sign regardetli me."

The elfin harp his neck around,
In minstrel guise, he hung;

And on the wind, in doleful sound,
Its dying accents rung.

Selcouth-Wondrous.

2 An aucient sest upon the Tweed, in Selkirkshire. In

Then forth he went; yet turn'd him oft
To view his ancient hall:

On the grey tower, in lustre soft,
The autumn moonbeams fall;

And Leader's waves, like silver sheen,
Danced shimmering in the ray;
In deepening mass, at distance seen,
Broad Soltra's mountains lay.

"Farewell, my father's ancient tower! A long farewell," said he :

"The scene of pleasure, pomp, or power, Thou never more shalt be.

"To Learmont's name no foot of earth Shall here again belong,

And, on thy hospitable hearth,

The hare shall leave her young.

"Adieu! adieu!" again he cried, All as he turned him roun'"Farewell to Leader's silver tide! Farewell to Ercildoune!"

The hart and hind approach'd the place,
As lingering yet he stood;

And there, before Lord Douglas' face,
With them he cross'd the flood.

Lord Douglas leap'd on his berry-brown steed,
And spurr'd him the Leader o'er;

But, though he rode with lightning speed,
He never saw them more.

"Gin ye wad meet wi' me again,

Gang to the bonny banks of Fairnalie."

Their wondrous course had been; But ne'er in haunts of living men Again was Thoinas seen.

COLLINS.

THE simple tradition, upon which the following stanzas are founded, runs thus: While two Highland hunters were passing the night in a solitary bothy, (a hut, built for the purpose of hunting,) and making merry over their venison and whisky, one of them expressed a wish that they had pretty lasses to complete their party. The words were scarcely uttered, when two beautiful young women, habited in green, entered the hut, dancing and singing. One of the hunters was seduced by the siren who attached herself particularly to him, to leave the hut: the other remained, and, suspicious of the fair seducers, continued to play upon a trump, or Jew's harp, some strain, consecrated to the Virgin Mary. Day at length came, and the temptress vanished. Searching in the forest, he found the bones of his unfortunate friend, who had been torn to pieces and devoured by the fiend into whose toils he had fallen. The place was from thence called the Glen of the Green Women.

Glenfinlas is a tract of forest-ground, lying in the Highlands of Perthshire, not far from Callender, in Menteith. It was formerly a royal forest, and now belongs to the Earl of Moray. This country, as well as the adjacent district of Balquidder, was, in times of yore, chiefly inhabited by the Macgregors. To the west of the Forest of Glenfinlas lies Loch Katrine, and its romantic avenue, called the Troshachs. Benledi, Benmore, and Benvoirlich, are mountains in the same district, and at no great distance from Glenfinlas. The river Teith passes Callender and the Castle of Doune, and joins the Forth near Stirling. The Pass of Lenny is immediately above Callender, and is the principal access to the Highlands, from that town. Glenartney is a forest, near Benvoirlich. The whole forms a sublime tract of Alpine scenery.

This ballad first appeared in the Tales of Wonder.

4 I can only describe the second sight, by adopting Dr. Johnson's definition, who calls it "An impression, either by the mind upon the eye, or by the eye upon the us. bự

if they were present." To which I would only add, that the spectral appearances, thus presented, usually presage misfortune; that the faculty is painful to those who sup pose they possess it: and that they usually acquire it while themselves under the pressure of melancholy